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Long Winter gets warm welcome in Toronto

The mashup of music, art, comedy, video games and food has become a beacon during the bleak months.

Event organizers Mike Haliechuk, left, and Brian Wong, a DJ of the collective It's Not U, It's Me will transform the mall space behind them as a concert venue for the Long Winter concert. The concert will be in Galleria Mall on Dufferin St. (Chris So / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

By Nick PatchEntertainment Reporter

Sat., Jan. 30, 2016

Long Winter owes both its inspiration and success to one undeniable fact of life in Toronto: this time of year can be grey, gruelling and gravely boring.

The three-year-old event series has become a beacon in the bleak months, a mashup of music, art, comedy, video games and food that draws amusement-park queues to the Great Hall on Queen St. W. each month. And its origins owe to the fact that the event’s creators, like its attendees, simply wanted something to occupy their time during the frigid portion of the calendar.

“For me personally, it keeps me so busy that the winter just flies by,” said F---ed Up guitarist and event co-founder Mike Haliechuk.

“It’s very Canadian to celebrate the winter and that majority of our year.”

The first concert, back in November 2012, came together in part because F---ed Up wanted to book a winter show and decidedto do things a bit differently.

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Though it was conceived as a “community revue,” Long Winter in its first year was very much a vehicle for F---ed Up’s pop-coated hardcore. Most elements of the event, which typically runs November through March, have since remained static — the pay-what-you-can policy, all-ages inclusivity and giddy cross-platform programming — but the booking concept has changed.

Interiors of the Galleria Mall on Dufferin Street. (Chris So)

“We used to try to book a big headliner every time,” Haliechuk said. “But we were finding that for very established bands, playing Long Winter was a nuisance. There are a lot of hoops to jump through; the space is weird and it’s not a lot of money.

“But with bands that are on the cusp, going to Long Winter will often be the best show they’ve ever had.”

That’s because Haliechuk and his team — which numbers between 50 and 60 people, including around 20 volunteers — target acts that have yet to play to an audience as big or diverse as that granted by Long Winter, which consistently fills the Great Hall to its 1,000-plus capacity.

To pinpoint the right acts — for past shows, Moon King, Alvvays and Absolutely Free — Haliechuk has curated the lineup alongside Brian Wong, Colin Medley and Vish Khanna, while the artistic booking has been handled by Alison Creba, Lyndsey Cope and Jaclyn Blumas.

Comedian Spencer Butt has performed at Long Winter.

Each Long Winter is packed with attractions. The most recent instalment featured comedy from Spencer Butt, mouth-watering yaki-onigiri (or grilled rice balls filled with smoked turkey or veggies) from Abokichi, indie video gaming in the form of The Wizards of Trinity BellwoodsThe Wizards of Trinity Bellwoods, a discussion panel featuring Sloan’s Chris Murphy and impressive dinosaur-themed electronic performance art from Zoo Owl.

And few of the fledgling artists featured seem to anticipate the call.

“I was very shocked when Mike reached out,” said Nicole Dollanganger,a Grimes-endorsed songwriter of blackly bleak bedroom folk. “I’d only played a couple shows, so the idea was really intimidating.”

Beyond a sizable, reliably packed room, Long Winter offers artists a chance to branch out beyond their dedicated fan base.

“With Long Winter, we got a variety of age groups and backgrounds,” said Steve Sidoli of Teenanger, scheduled for Saturday’s show at Galleria Shopping Centre, the fifth Long Winter to be held away from the Great Hall.

“I remember I started a new job a couple days later, and a guy who would definitely not have been into the band before recognized me and said, ‘I saw you play at the Great Hall.’”

Still, in the dizzying blizzard of entertainments at Long Winter, some elements are bound to be lost.

A special glow at one of Long Winter's two December instalments.

“Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t,” said Scott Jenner of VCR, set to play Saturday. “I’ve been before to support a friend’s thing and then I’m just confused as to what’s happening for the rest of the night, because there’s always so much happening. Maybe the two things I’m interested in are happening four hours apart, so sometimes I feel kind of lost.

“But sometimes I get to see things I would never normally leave my house to go see that I actually really enjoy.”

Well, the simple act of leaving one’s house can feel like an achievement in these months of seasonal hibernation. And Long Winter organizers hope the show is as inspiring as it is overwhelming.

“It’s an event that comes out of a small artistic community in Toronto. We wanted it to feel like everybody who went was part of it,” Haliechuk said.

“If you make people engage (and) think about what they’re doing from the minute they get there, hopefully they have a different experience than going to the movies.”

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